6 Mexico prison workers slain after crackdown

Government trying to clean up jails

January 21, 2005|By Hugh Dellios, Tribune foreign correspondent.

MEXICO CITY — Six employees of a federal prison near the Texas border were shot to death and dumped outside the prison Thursday, apparently in retaliation for a weeklong crackdown on corruption involving jailed drug lords.

The slayings reportedly occurred near the maximum-security prison in Matamoros, where some of Mexico's most notorious narco-traffickers were transferred this week after a dramatic police raid last week backed by army tanks on the La Palma prison outside Mexico City.

Mexican officials vowed not to back down on their campaign to clean up La Palma and other prisons, where notorious drug capos were still running their trafficking operations and ordering the killing of rivals despite their incarcerations.

"In no way are we going to lower our guard. In no way will we slow down in the battle," said Interior Secretary Santiago Creel.

Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha said officials would step up security outside the country's three maximum-security prisons in response to the slayings. He said the victims were three prison administrators and three guards.

Last week's dramatic raid on La Palma, considered Mexico's most secure prison, underscored how narco-traffickers flourish in Mexico despite their arrests and other drug-war gains by President Vicente Fox's administration.

It also showed how even the toughest prison in Mexico could be vulnerable to the corrupting temptations of the narcos' money. With the prison administration either in cahoots or looking the other way, two drug cartel chiefs, Osiel Cardenas and Benjamin Arellano Felix, had allegedly formed a jailhouse alliance to protect their interests.

"This is a good opportunity to rethink the war on drugs," said Jorge Chabat, a security and drug-war analyst in Mexico City. "The U.S. government has been telling Mexico for years to arrest the big capos. Well, now Mexico has done that, and you know what? Nothing changes."

Yet Fox has vowed to regain control of the prisons. On Thursday he said the government would unleash "the mother of all battles" against organized crime and the narco-traffickers.

Cardenas and Arellano were separated after the raid on La Palma. Other notorious inmates were transferred, including drug capo Miguel Angel Caro Quintero, who was sent to the Matamoros prison.

Families rally at prison

The prison employees' deaths come after a week of protests by the families and friends of La Palma inmates, including the well-heeled wives of the drug lords. Marching outside the prison, they claimed the prisoners were being mistreated and demanded the restoration of curtailed visiting privileges.

The dawn raid on La Palma by more than 900 troops and police officers was ordered in the midst of concerns about an increasingly violent turf war among drug traffickers.

Officials say Arellano, head of the Tijuana cartel, and Cardenas, chief of the Gulf cartel, had teamed up at La Palma to combat efforts by the leader of the Ciudad Juarez cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, to conquer their turf.

The two allegedly continued to direct their operations from their cells. Cardenas had employed a group of ex-elite army soldiers called Los Zetas to serve as his enforcers, and officials feared they were planning to help him escape.

Matamoros is in the territory of Cardenas' Gulf cartel. Among the growing drug-related violence there was the discovery earlier this week of the bodies of a small-town mayor and his sons.

Before the raid, the last straw for federal authorities was the murder of Guzman's brother Arturo inside La Palma by another inmate on New Year's Eve. It was the third slaying there in eight months, and the second straight against a Guzman ally.

Federal authorities have detained five La Palma prison officials, including Supt. Guillermo Montoya, hired last June despite questions about an escape under his watch at another prison in 2000, officials said. Mexico's national prisons director, Carlos Tornero, has resigned.

Along with the drug traffickers, the prison was home to Daniel "The Earchopper" Arizmendi, the country's most notorious kidnapper, and Hector and Antonio Cerezo, brothers accused of belonging to the subversive Popular Revolutionary Army.

Police investigators had infiltrated the guards' ranks at La Palma. Reforma newspaper reported that they had a videotape of Cardenas, Arellano and other drug traffickers holding a friendly meeting with Montoya, the superintendent, in his office Dec. 7.

Officials say Cardenas was essentially controlling the prison through his henchmen. With the rules relaxed, inmates were meeting up to 12 hours a day with visitors and were reportedly slipping out written orders to their underlings through their attorneys.

Guards: We were scared

Now under suspicion, the prison's guards have protested, saying they lacked proper training and staff. While always portrayed as an honest, elite force, some now say they were scared to mingle with the violent traffickers in the common areas.